Thank you for taking the time out to engage on the forum - I do appreciate it.

I don't think the import duty makes much difference. Even if it were payable, it's just 3%. The cost of shipping in the EU is not very much, only about 15 Euro to ship it to the UK.

Sure currency changes over time, but as you know it's a lot more complicated than this. The exchange rate may make buying in one currency cheaper, but it may also be the case that the exchange rate means your production costs in some other country are cheaper too. It's not a one way street. In the case of the US store, the GBP to USD conversion rate has been pretty stable for the last 3 years, and I assume you do make a profit on your online store sales. Companies tend to easily comment on how their costs have gone up (or may have gone up), but they never show the full financial working so you can see how the exchange rate or other factors have reduced their costs elsewhere (as you'll know the utility companies are a very good example of this in the UK), so it's only a small amount of the picture to tell us that exchange rates have changed.

It might be common that things cost different amounts in different places, but there are two reasons for this. One is that the costs are significantly higher in some area, for example if you have to ship from the UK and warehouses in the UK cost more than in the US. The other is when a company realises that people in the UK will pay more, so they can get an even higher profit margin from them there.

It seems to me as if the real cause of the increased price in the UK is because of the latter, because you realise you can make more money out of the UK market per item sold, no? You say that the online store can't sell to the UK because of agreements that were made, which sounds reasonable, except that those agreements were made by you. So it is still the case that you chose not to ship to the UK via the store. Presumably this is because you make more profit by selling via those stores than by the online store? (where the price for ring + arm would be about £155)?

You describe using the online store as a 'loop hole', but I don't see why you think it is - it's explicitly a store for the whole world (except the UK and Japan). Presumably you make a reasonable profit on selling to EU customers through the store (especially as there is no bricks and mortar store to get it's cut as well). Is it not the case that the main reason for the new EU store is to increase the amount that you charge EU customers? At the moment a French customer can buy the Ring + Arm from your online store and have it delivered for £155, when the EU store launches will it be the same, more, or less than this? Is the launch of the EU store going to put prices up for online buyers?

I realise you have not decided what the price of the Ring + Arm is going to be in your new UK store, but can you please indicate whether your current thinking is that it should be closer to the £155 it is in the current worldwide online store, or closer to the £235 it is in current UK stores?

Personally from what I've seen, and what people have said, the Orbis Ring Flash is a really good tool (so well done!) but the pricing in the UK is bordering on ridiculous.